β-Ga₂O₃ Used as a Saturable Absorber to Realize Passively Q-Switched Laser Output

β-Ga2O3 crystal have attracted great attentions in the fields of photonics and photoelectronics because of its ultra wide-band gap and high thermal conductivity. Here, pure β-Ga2O3 crystal was successfully grown by optical floating zone (OFZ) method, and used as saturable absorbers to realize a passively Q-switched all-solid-state 1μm laser for the first time. By placing the as-grown β-Ga2O3 crystal into the resonator of Nd:GYAP solid-state laser, a Q-switched pulses at the center wavelength of 1080.4 nm are generated under a output coupling of 10%. The maximum output power is 191.5 mW while the shortest pulse width is 606.54 ns, and the maximum repetition frequency is 344.06 kHz. The maximum pulse energy and peak power are 0.567 μJ and 0.93 W, respectively. Our experimental results show that β-Ga2O3 crystal has great potential in the development of all-solid-state 1μm pulsed laser.